Author: lenz

IT ZIEHMS TO ME: Mierdierks is on the brink of something big

Anybody who follows the golf scene in Illinois should tune in to what happens the next few days in the final stage of the PGA Tour’s Qualifying School at PGA West in California.

Wilmette’s Eric Mierdierks, winner of the 2010 Illinois Open at Hawthorn Woods and runnerup (in a playoff) to Chicago’s Max Scodro at The Glen Club in 2012, hit the halfway point in the six-round marathon in a tie for ninth place. The top 25 and ties after the six rounds earn berths on the PGA Tour for 2013.

Mierdierks, 27, has never played in a PGA Tour event. A New Trier High School graduate, he developed his skills playing on Arizona’s Gateway Tour the past few years, and his game appears to be peaking at the right time.

The PGA Tour Qualifying School will be radically transformed in 2013. This is the last year its top players will earn berths for the following year on the PGA circuit, and Mierdierks wants to take advantage of what might be a last-chance opportunity. Q-School will offer only spots on the Web.com Tour in 2013. That means it’ll be even harder to get on golf’s premier circuit, and it’s plenty difficult already.

Mierdierks was one of 1,558 players submitting entries to the 2012 Q-School, which is being conducted in three stages. This final stage, still in progress, began with 172 players battling for the coveted PGA Tour spots. Through the first three rounds Mierdierks is at 203, and five strokes behind leader Meen Whee Kim. Mierdierks shot 66-67 in rounds 2 and 3 on Thursday and Friday over the Nicklaus Tournament Course and TPC Stadium Course to climb the leaderboard.

Saturday, Sunday and Monday rounds remain before playing privileges are determined. Most of the finalists will get privileges of some sort on the Web.com Tour in 2013 but, of course, the PGA spots are more coveted.

The last of the very few Chicago area players to earn a PGA Tour card was Crystal Lake’s Joe Affrunti. He earned his in 2010 by finishing in the top 25 on the Nationwide Tour money list. Affrunti, like Mierdierks, was an Illinois Open champion (2004) and also won the Chicago District Amateur in both 2000 and 2001. His PGA Tour hopes, however, have been hampered by a shoulder injury that required surgery.

Mierdierks won his Illinois Open title with a one-shot win over Luke Guthrie, the University of Illinois star who made it to the PGA Tour in a hurry. Making good use of some sponsor exemptions, he was a smash hit on both the PGA Tour and Web.com Tour in the second half of the 2012 season.

KemperSports update

KemperSports, the Northbrook-based golf management firm, continues to build a broad impact world-wide. Its latest project is the Vista Mar Golf & Beach Resort in Panama, and the soon-to-open 36-hole Streamsong Resort in Polk County, FL., has already received rave reviews in various golf publications.

Scott Wilson has been named director of golf at Streamsong. He had been at another KemperSports location, Vellano Country Club in California.

On the more local front, Nate Mather is leaving his job as general manager of Glen Flora Country Club in Waukegan to become GM of The Club at Fairvue Plantation in Gallatin, Tenn. – another KemperSports facility.

For the record

Hopefully this is the end of media reports suggesting Oak Brook’s Butler National might return as a big-tournament venue. Some club members would like the exposure Butler received as site of the Western Open from 1974-1990, but the vast majority want it to remain all-male and therefore not acceptable for U.S. Golf Assn. and PGA events. A vote was taken on the issue recently and my sources tell me only one or two members wanted to accept female members. Until that sentiment changes Butler as a tournament site is a non-issue.

Just my opinion

This joint announcement by the U.S. Golf Assn. and Royal & Ancient Golf Club banning the anchoring putting stroke isn’t that big a deal. Of course, anchoring a club against your body should be banned. It represents too big a departure from golf’s traditions. Royal & Ancient likely felt stronger about this issue than the USGA did, and the rule proposal was too long in coming.

And don’t forget, long putters (the belly variety and the longer “broom-handle’’) are still legal. That’s fine by me, though I suspect there’ll be some controversies over just what is anchoring and what isn’t once the rule is put into effect in 2016. How close to your body does the club have to be to be considered “anchoring?’’ Players might be willing to test the rule on that.

As far as I’m concerned, though, golf has a bigger issue to solve – slow play. That would be at the top of my list.

Calendar material

I’ve found golf just fine in this late-fall, early-winter period in Chicago and only wish more courses were still open. The Nos. 1 and 3 layouts at Cog Hill, in Lemont, are among the few that will remain open year-around, and some fun events are coming up on those.

The Frosty’s 3-Club Open will be held over No. 1 on Dec. 9 and the Eskimo Open will be played on both courses on Jan. 6.

Also notable is the Jan. 1 deadline established by the Western Golf Assn. for the sale of its holiday ticket package. The package includes two any-day tournament tickets, lanyards and ticket holders to next September’s BMW Championship at Conway Farms for a great price — $65. Only 2,500 such packages will be available.

MISSOURI OZARKS: Old Kinderhook is the place to go

Water comes into play frequently at this Tom Weiskopf masterpiece.

CAMDENTON, Mo. – It’s easy to have warm feelings about Missouri’s Lake of the Ozarks region. Mine go back to college days, and that was way too long ago.

Not everything in the world is better now than it was back in those more carefree years, but Lake of the Ozarks fits the bill. It still has its beautiful lakes and down-to-earth charm, and – make no mistake – the golf has gotten better, too.

As recently as the early 1990s the area had just five 18-hole courses, the hotbeds being at the two big resorts – Tan-Tar-A and Lodge of the Four Seasons. Those spots are still thriving, but now the number of public courses in the region is up to 13 and nine having lodging available.

Perhaps the best of the course now – and I’ve played most of them at one time or another — is Old Kinderhook, located in Camdenton (population about 4,000). It’s hard to describe Old Kinderhook, a place that got its name off the former name of Camden County.

Paul Hannigan, an all-purpose staffer at Old Kinderhook with a work background that includes doing sports radio in Illinois, admits that Old Kinderhook isn’t really a resort because it doesn’t have a hotel. That will soon change. The resort will reveal artists’ renderings and plans for The Lodge at Old Kinderhook on Oct. 30, 2013. It’s expected to be a five-story structure near the current pro shop.

Even without a hotel Old Kinderhook has plenty of lodging, thereby definitely qualifying it as a golf destination. On the premises are cottages, villas, patio homes and estate homes. There’s also a conference center and two quality restaurants – The Hook Café for breakfast and lunch and The Trophy Room, a most pleasant place for upscale evening dining.

You don’t have to give up the more homespun places that have marked the Ozarks for decades, though. RJ’s Family Restaurant (some Ozark veterans may know it as CJ’s, but the name was changed in recent years) and Tonka Hills are nearby spots that worked out for breakfast and Jake Culpepper’s Steakhouse was a fun dinner spot.

Normally, full-fledged golf resorts offer more than one course. Old Kinderhook doesn’t, but Lake Valley – a fun layout with six par-5s, six par-4s and six par-3s – is across the street on Rt. 54 and Deer Chase, newest of the Ozark courses (it opened in 2004), is a short drive away — though a bit off the beaten path — in Linn Creek.

As for the Old Kinderhook layout, it’s got a bit of everything. Tom Weiskopf, the long-successful PGA Tour star, designed it in 1999, and it wasn’t just a case of him putting his name on the course for promotional value. Weiskopf actually lived in the area for a few months when Old Kinderhook was under construction.

The 6,855-yard par-71 finished product reminds me of Cedar River, another Weiskopf design at the long-popular Michigan resort, Shanty Creek in Bellaire. Cedar River is outstanding, but Old Kinderhook may be even better thanks to its stunning elevation changes.

Old Kinderhook has zoysia fairways and large bentgrass greens, and it’s open year-around. After a mid-November round there I was most impressed with the variety of the par-3s. No. 3, at 206 yards from the tips, offers a dramatic downhill tee shot. The shortest, the 152-yard seventh (pictured above), plays over a ravine and is my most memorable of the four one-shotters. A great view of the lake on the left is featured at the 11th, another downhiller, and water is on the right at the 16th, which has a split-level green.

In addition to the course, considered perhaps Weiskopf’s best, there’s an 11-acre practice range and two putting greens. It’s a golf destination very much worth checking out, and it’s been getting better. Thirty homes were built in a 24-month span and a 12,000-square foot garden was created behind the No. 12 tee to supplement the restaurant’s food offerings.

DOWN ROUTE 66: Good golf mixes well with all the nostalgia

For years it had been on my bucket list of things to do. I wanted to make a driving trip down Route 66. Upon retirement from my full-time job as a sportswriter I made that trip happen.

In June, 2010, the two of us took off on a drive of nearly 6,000 miles, which included some side trips that took us through eight states on roads that once were heavily travelled. The once-famous Route 66, which opened in 1926 and was closed in 1984, is still marked by road signs and many of its attractions still attract tourists looking to reconnect to a simpler time, when there weren’t many chain hotels or franchise dining establishments.

For us this journey was all at once nostalgic, interesting, sobering, educational, entertaining, enlightening and – above all – very much worthwhile. It gave us a glimpse of what America used to be and brought into focus how much it has changed.

And that got me to thinking about making another, very similar, dream trip. Why not combine the unique offerings of Route 66 with rounds at golf courses along the way? This trip is still a dream, but it could be done. I haven’t played all the courses that I’m about to propose, but each is just a few miles off of Route 66 and the myriad of attractions it offers.

Like Route 66 itself, the public courses were chosen because are – or at least seemed to be – out of the ordinary in one way or another. Presumably they are all in keeping with the spirit of Route 66.

So, let our journey begin.

It starts at the corner of Michigan and Adams in downtown Chicago, but that’s just a photo shoot opportunity. Get to Joliet, and that’s where the fun begins. Route 66 is called Joliet Road for a stretch, and that’s where you’ll find a small park with both an ice cream stand and garage, called Dick’s on Route 66, with most unusual rooftops. The ice cream stand has a replica of the Blues Brothers and the garage across the street is adorned with an old car. You just don’t see places like that anymore – except on Route 66.

GOLF STOP NO. 1 – How about Cog Hill’s No. 2 course, called Ravines, in Lemont. I like fun golf, and this one has always been one of my favorites.

Continue on through the little town of Wilmington, which has a Route 66 landmark – the Launching Pad Restaurant with its big Gemini Giant statue. Just a few miles away, in Odell, is a gas station that opened in 1932 and is one of the oldest attractions on Route 66.

We found Illinois didn’t offer as many Route 66 attractions as some of the other states, but there was the first Steak & Shake restaurant in Bloomington and a rabbit ranch in Staunton.

GOLF STOP NO. 2 – In Missouri you go through the Lake of the Ozarks, which has a number of good courses. My choice would be Old Kinderhook, a Tom Weiskopf design in Camdenton.

You don’t drive far before you hit Cuba, Mo., a town of 3,500 that is a must-stop for Route 66ers. If you can endure tight quarters you should spend the night in the tiny rooms at the Wagon Wheel Motel and have breakfast at the Back in the Day Café. Cuba has promoted Route 66 better than any other community. The World’s Largest Rocking Chair is eye-catching but not nearly as interesting as the murals which adorn many of the town’s buildings. You’ll need to allow some time for sightseeing in Cuba.

From there you go briefly through the edge of Kansas and then hit Oklahoma, another state that embraces the Route 66 spirit. In Catoosa you’ll find a landmark, Totem Pole Park. The poles have intricately created paintings on them, and one is 90 feet high.

GOLF STOP NO. 3 – I’m told the lengthy Jimmie Austin layout at the University of Oklahoma in Norman is one of best campus courses in the U.S.

Before exiting Oklahoma you should visit the Round Barn in Arcadia, with a hayloft that is popular for weddings and other social events. Just a few yards further is Pops, a relatively new restaurant created with a Route 66 flavor. A shakes and burgers place, it has all glass walls formed with pyramids of pop bottles.

It seemed like tedious drive into Texas until we ran into the beautiful Stations of the Cross, featuring a 190-foot crucifix, in the town of Groom. Just west of Amarillo is the Cadillac Ranch, another must-see for Route 66ers. It’s a strange thing, and poorly marked on the road. Some eccentric art-minded individual bought a dozen old cars, buried them in the ground and spray-painted them. Guess this is something you have to see to appreciate.

In Adrian, Tex., you reach the designated midway point of Route 66. It’s 1,139 miles from the start in Chicago to the finish in Los Angeles. Not surprisingly, the sign giving you that information is a photographer’s favorite. Then it’s on to New Mexico.

GOLF STOP NO. 4 – Paa-Ko Ridge, a 27-hole facility in Albuquerque, may have the best course in New Mexico. Some say its scenery rivals that of Pebble Beach.

Albuquerque has an 18-mile stretch of a main street, Central Avenue, on Route 66 that is a microcosm of how the world has changed since the road’s heyday. You need to take this portion of the drive slowly to ponder the old hotels, the tourist-friendly restaurants and – sadly – the dilapidated buildings as well. Mile by mile you see how time changes. Some places tried to keep up with the times. Others didn’t.

Arizona comes next. First stop was in Gallup, home to the El Rancho Motel. Once a regular hangout for movie stars like William Bendix and Jane Fonda, El Rancho also had some cinema memorabilia worth seeing. The Indian craft shops nearby offer some interesting things as well.

The Painted Desert and Petrified National Forest are available for brief rest breaks as is the town of Winslow, made relevant by the Eagles’ song “Taking It Easy.’’ There’s a landmark at “the corner’’ made popular by that song. Those places, though, are just a warmup for the Grand Canyon outside Flagstaff. The views there are breathtaking.

GOLF STOP NO. 5 – In Williams, 30 miles from Flagstaff, there’s a layout with at least a good name – Elephant Rocks. It opened in 1990, green fees are moderate.

By now you’re in the home stretch. Only 321 miles in California remain on Route 66. The finish is at the Santa Monica Pier where a 1952 plaque honors humorist Will Rogers. You might also get a taste of the Arroyo Seco Parkway, which is also known as the Pasadena Freeway. It was the nation’s first freeway and connected Pasadena with Los Angeles. It took three interstate highways to replace Route 66 through California, though most of the old road remains.

Before you reach the finish line the California portion of the jaunt brings you into the state from Arizona over the Colorado River. San Bernardino, Barstow. Los Angeles and Pasadena are also on the route before you hit Santa Monica.

GOLF STOP NO. 6 – California has plenty of better courses, but I’ve always enjoyed the 36 holes at Brookside, in Pasadena. The economically priced courses are in the shadow of the famed Rose Bowl stadium, and just that setting makes them special.

Six rounds of golf, mixed in with at least a week of driving and sightseeing. Does that sound like fun to you? Once we completed our very memorable trip I commented that driving Route 66 once was enough. Now I’m not so sure.

IT ZIEHMS TO ME: Changes are coming among Illinois club pros

There wasn’t much movement in Chicago’s club professional ranks the past few years, but that’s not the case now. Already five well-established head pros have announced plans to move on.

The move creating the most ripple effect was Mike Scully’s departure from Medinah immediate after the Ryder Cup. He is now in charge at Desert Mountain, a Scottsdale, Ariz., resort that has five courses.

Scully was also the vice president of the Illinois PGA, so his leaving the area after nearly 10 years created some adjustment in the section’s rotation of officers. Chris Gumbach became the IPGA’s 25th president at the Fall Annual Meeting. Gumbach, a member of the board of directors from 2007-12, succeeds Casey Brozek, who will continue on the board as honorary president.

Gumbach, in his 18th year at River Forest Country Club, has been that club’s head professional the past seven seasons.

Scully’s position as vice president was taken over by Jim Opp, the head professional at Bonnie Dundee who has been on the IPGA board for eight years and was most recently chairman of the Education Committee. Mark Labiak, in his 15th season at Ruth Lake, is the new secretary and Hans Larson (Westmoreland), Jim Miller (Bloomington) and Mike Picciano (Bull Valley) have taken on three-year terms on the board of directors.

Other pros departing their jobs are Ron Romack, at Exmoor; Carmen Molinaro, at Buffalo Grove and Arboretum, Jim Arendt at Naperville and Michael Knights at Midlothian. Molinaro and Arendt announced their retirements.

Watson honored at WGA’s Green Coat Gala

Tom Watson (left) is welcomed into the Western Golf Association’s Caddie Hall of Fame by WGA executive director John Kaczkowski at the WGA’s Green Coat Gala at Chicago’s Peninsula Hotel. (Chuck Cherney Photo).

Northwestern lands big-time recruits

Northwestern coaches Pat Goss and Emily Fletcher have each signed high profile recruits to letters of intent for 2013.

Goss picked up Matt Fitzpatrick of Sheffield, England, the 2012 British Boys Amateur champion. Goss calls him “the most significant player we’ve signed since Luke Donald’ and predicts Fitzgerald “will make an immediate impact on our program.’’

Fletcher added Kacie Komoto to her women’s team. Komoto, from Punahoe High School in Honolulu, Hawaii, is the reigning Antigua National High School champion. She was the Hawaii state champion in 2011.

CDGA revamps schedule, adds Super Seniors

The Chicago District Golf Assn. will had the first CDGA Super Seniors tourney to its schedule for 2013. The flighted one-day event for players 65 and over will be held Aug. 5 at Royal Hawk, in St. Charles.

Meanwhile, the CDGA’s premier event – the 83rd Illinois State Amateur – will get a major date change. It’ll be held July 16-18 at Aldeen, in Rockford, instead of taking its long-held spot on the calendar in the second week of August. The change will make the State Am a lead-in to the Illinois Open and Western Amateur and avoid a conflict with the U.S. Amateur, which received a date alteration from the U.S. Golf Assn.

Another significant change on the CDGA slate involves the 21st Illinois Mid-Amateur at Flossmoor. Usually held in May, the tourney will be conducted Aug. 27-28 in 2013.

Here and there

Jim Richerson, who heads Kohler Company’s golf operations, is the new Region 6 director for the PGA of America. He succeeds Butler National’s Bruce Patterson as the focal point for PGA activities in Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin.

The Bolingbrook Sports Dome (formerly the Ditka Dome) now has its indoor golf operation in full swing. The facility was renovated by new owner Jim McWethy, owner of the Mistwood course in Romeoville, during the summer.

Two of Wisconsin’s top courses — Meadow Valleys course at Blackwolf Run and the Irish course at Whistling Straits – will offer reduced rates until their closing on Nov. 25.

LedgeStone, one of Missouri’s best public facilities in Branson, will hold a toy drive through Dec. 22. Players will get a free round (with a $22 cart fee) if they donate a toy during play Monday-Thursday.

Did you know?

The George S. May Insurance building, somewhat of a Chicago golf landmark, is now more. Located at Touhy and Washington in Park Ridge, it was recently taken down to make room for a Whole Foods store. May was a pioneer tournament promoter who put on big-money, high-profile tournaments at Tam O’Shanter in the 1940s and 1950s. Tam, long since reduced to nine holes, is located in Niles and is about two miles from where the May headquarters was located.

IT ZIEHMS TO ME: New bunkers have changed Kemper

Illinois PGA will have a different challenge if the section decides to keep its first major tourney of 2013 at Kemper Lakes.

The club, which hosted the 1989 PGA Championship, the 1992 U.S. Women’s Amateur and several Champions Tour stops before it became a private venue in 2009, has begun a renovation project.

Taking small steps at first, the club approved Libertyville architect Rick Jacobson’s plans to radically change the bunkering. The original course had 199,000 square feet of bunkers. When Jacobson’s work is done it’ll have 112,000. But the number of bunkers will probably increase from the present 63.

Kemper has a 10-year master plan, and Jacobson started with the green-side bunkers on the back nine. They’re smaller and deeper now, and that trend will continue when he takes on the front nine next fall. A fall round at the Long Grove layout revealed some eye-catching new looks, particularly at Nos.13, 15 and 16. Only temporary greens were in play – with the exception of the tight par-4 12th, which remained unchanged — after Genesis Golf construction company began work on Oct. 1.

In its public days Kemper hosted 24 consecutive Illinois PGA Championships. Since going private the club has cut back on outside tournament play, but it does host the IPGA Match Play Championship in April. If the tourney returns in 2013 its players will face nines with radically different sets of bunkers. Not only will the size and depth of the bunkers be different, but so will the sand. The white variety, so well-received at Knollwood during this season’s U.S. Mid-Amateur Championship, will be used in Kemper’s new bunkers.

Having such a lack consistency from one nine to the other is not ideal, but the IPGA might decide that keeping continuity at one of its favorite tournament sites overrides that.

A great fall for the Rosinias

In September Michael Rosinia won the boys 15-17 age competition in the Youth Skills Challenge, a Ryder Cup preliminary that drew over 3,000 entrants and concluded at Medinah the week before the U.S. and European pros went at it in their memorable team competition.

Two months later the IPGA announced that Billy Rosinia, long-time head professional at Flagg Creek in Countryside and Michael’s father, was its Senior Player-of-the-Year. He’ll pick up his prize at Medinah, too, when the IPGA hosts its awards ceremony on Thursday, Nov. 15.

Rosinia and Ivanhoe’s Jim Sobb have dominated the IPGA senior events and one or the other has been player-of-the-year in each of the last six years. Rosinia edged Sobb this time, finishing in the top 10 of all six tournaments he entered with one victory and two runner-up finishes on his scorecard.

St. Charles assistant Curtis Malm had earlier clinched a rare sweep of the IPGA Player-of-the-Year and Assistant Player-of-the-Year honors. Malm was the third man to do it, and the first since Glen Oak’s Matt Slowinski in 2009.

Streelman sticks with Wilson

Equipment changes have done in many a touring pro over the years, and it’ll be interesting to see how successful world No. 1 Rory McIlroy is after making a switch in 2013.

As for Chicago PGA Tour player Kevin Streelman, he’s not taking such a risk. Streelman is staying with Chicago-based Wilson Sporting Goods. Streelman, from Winfield, signed with Wilson in 2010 and just signed an agreement to continue playing Wilson Staff FG Tour V2 irons. He’ll also carry a Wilson bag and wear a cap supporting the company.

Streelman had three top-10 finishes in 2013, including a tie for eighth at the John Deere Classic.

Jemsek Golf remains at Pine Meadow

There was plenty of doubt for most of the summer, but Jemsek Golf will continue to operate Pine Meadow in Mundelein.

The Jemsek family, owners of Cog Hill, began a lease agreement with the University of St. Mary of the Lake and the Archdiocese of Chicago in 1985. The next year, after architects Joe Lee and Rocky Roquemore worked their magic on the land, Pine Meadow was named the Best New Public Course in the U.S. by Golf Magazine. It’s been widely recognized as one of Chicago’s best layouts ever since.

Negotiations on an extension of the lease were lengthy and complicated but they were eventually successful, though terms were not announced.

IT ZIEHMS TO ME: A new column to help golfers cope with winter weather

I may have felt that a 125-pound 14-year old would have to be teeing it up in the Masters before there was a need for me to write a golf column for primarily Midwest readers in the cold weather months.

Oops, now there is such a rare golfer– or at least there will be in another five months. An eighth-grader from China, Guan Tianlang, won last week’s Asian-Pacific Championship for amateurs in Bangkok, Thailand. That merited a Masters invitation for next April, as far Augusta National Golf Club’s members were concerned.

So be it, and his participation will spice up the first major championship of 2013. Plenty of golf news will be made before that, however – even in the winter months in the Midwest. There haven’t been many places to get the word out on such developments, though, so I’m going to do my part.

My Big Three teammate, Rory Spears, is the man to provide the bits and pieces on a nearly daily basis in his Golfers on Golf blog. I’ll be providing something different.

“It Ziehms to Me’’ will be exploring some different avenues of golf and delivering the news with a unique, and hopefully entertaining, spin. There’ll be no regular publication schedule, but I’ll write as frequently as news developments require it. We hope you enjoy “It Ziehms to Me.’’

So, here we go.

THE RECENT RYDER CUP may have seemed a downer after the collapse of the U.S. team in the Sunday matches, but – while being on site at Medinah every day – I found an uplifting story behind the scenes — the reunion of the Sweeney brothers.

Frank and Mary Sweeney, their parents, moved to a residence on Sunset Terrace – about 600 yards from the Medinah clubhouse – in 1962 and raised six children there. Their four boys – Frank, Phil, Pat and Brendan – were all Medinah caddies, and the Ryder Cup marked the first time they were all together since 2007. Their father passed away in March and their mother lives in Venice, FL.

“We had a blast growing up around the course,’’ said Brendan Sweeney. “We also parked cars and worked in the bag room. If it wasn’t for Medinah and the experiences we had there in our formative years we would not be where we are today. Golf is a great sport, and we were taught by the best.’’

All four had lengthy stints as caddies, went on to college and moved on to different careers.

Frank, 56, works as a blackjack dealer at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. He was a Medinah caddie from 1967-79 and worked at the 1975 U.S. Open as well as two Western Opens.

Phil, 55, lives in McHenry and is a mortgage banker for Harris Bank. He was a caddie from 1968-82 and worked two Western Opens.

Pat, 49, lives in Chicago where he is vice president of Global Video Chicago. Not only did he caddie at Medinah (1975-88, plus two Western Opens), he earned an Evans Scholarship doing it. Medinah is even more special to Pat. He was married at the club in 1994.

And then there’s Brendan, 45. He was a caddie from 1978-91, worked one Western Open and never left golf. While he lives in Orlando, FL., he works as director of golf media and player development for Indiana’s French Lick Resort – a facility that has four courses.

ON THE TEACHING FRONT there were two notable developments involving some of the game’s best.

Another honor has come to Pat Goss, the head coach at Northwestern and long-time swing guru for recent world No. 1 Luke Donald – and this is a big one. Goss, in his 17th season at NU, was named the winner of the prestigious Labron Harris Sr. Award, which goes to the college, high school or PGA professional who “represents the finest qualities the game has to offer.’’

And then from the St. Louis area comes the announcement of a new instruction video that was a joint effort by Jay Delsing, a long-time PGA Tour player, and Maria Palozola, who was director of golf at the Michael Jordan Golf Center a few years back. The video is called “Putting Perfection: 100 yards and in Wins!’’

Palozola taught at other Chicago facilities but may be better known for her tournament play at Mistwood. As Maria Long she captured the 2002 Illinois Women’s Open and proved she still had game four years later when she finished third in the state’s premier women’s competition.

THE WESTERN GOLF ASSN. honors Tom Watson on Friday in its annual Green Coat Gala, a long sold-out event at Chicago’s Peninsula Hotel. That’s just the start of a much busier than usual winter for the WGA.

For one thing, there’s the detail work involved in moving next September’s BMW Championship to a new location. It shifts from long-time Chicago area base Cog Hill to Conway Farms – a Lake Forest private facility that has hosted tons of big amateur events but never a PGA Tour stop.

Then, the WGA is also taking its Western Amateur out of Chicago for a year. After three Chicago stagings it’ll be held at The Alotian Club in Arkansas in 2013.

And then there’s the newest WGA venture – the Hotel Fitness Championship , which will lead off the new Web.com Tour’s four-tournament playoff series beginning next Aug. 26. It’ll be held at Sycamore Hills, in Ft. Wayne, Ind., and Duke Butler IV will be the tournament director.

This event will get big exposure next summer, as it will bring together the top 75 on the Web.com Tour money list and those ranking from 126 to 200 on the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup points list.

FROM HERE AND THERE:

This year’s John Deere Classic reported a record $6.79 million charity distribution off its 2012 PGA Tour stop at TPC Deere Run. That’s a $1.5 million increase over 2011, and 493 Quad Cities charities are the beneficiaries.

Steve Skinner and Josh Lesnik, chief executive officer and president respectively of KemperSports, were ranked 13th on Golf Inc. Magazine’s Most Powerful People in Golf. It’s the 12th straight year that KemperSports has been represented on the list, and the Northbrook-based organization is now the sixth largest golf management company. Among the more than a dozen additions to its portfolio this year is Stone Creek, home course of the University of Illinois golf teams.

James Lepp, who started his collegiate career at Illinois, continues to do big things. Lepp, who eventually transferred to Washington, won an NCAA title in 2005 and won on the Canadian PGA Tour in 2007. He took a break from golf in 2008 to start Kikkor golf shoe company but is back in it as a player, participating in The Golf Channel’s Big Break series.

AND A FINAL THOUGHT: An avid viewer of The Golf Channel, I’m generally less-than-impressed with the settings of foreign tournaments. The crowds don’t look as big as what I’m used to seeing in the U.S., and the courses don’t look as good, either.

A major exception came in watching the last World Golf Championship event of 2012, the HSBC Championship that was won by Ian Poulter at Mission Hills in China. It was played on the Olazabal Course (designed by the most recent European Ryder Cup captain). A beautiful layout for TV purposes with some intriguing elevation changes, it’s one of 12 courses at Mission Hills. That makes it the largest golf club in the world and provides more proof of how global the sport has become.

IPGA PLAYERS: Orrick wins again, but Malm sweeps player-of-the-year awards

GALENA, IL. – It was a rarity when Steve Orrick won the Illinois PGA Championship in August. He was the first non-Chicago area club professional to take that title in 60 years.

It wasn’t so unusual for Orrick, the head man at Country Club of Decatur, to rule the last of the section’s four major championships on Tuesday, however. Orrick won the IPGA Players Championship for the third time in five years on the North Course at Eagle Ridge Resort. In addition to his wins in 2008 and 2009 Orrick tied for second in 2011.

“There must be something in the air up here,’’ said Orrick. “I’ve played good every time I’ve come here.’’

This week was no exception. He coped with two days of chilly weather and swirling winds to post a 4-under-par 140 total for the tourney’s 36 holes. Only three other players bettered par. Cog Hill’s Garrett Chaussard and teaching pro Travis Johns, of Twin Lakes in Palatine, were two shots back in a tie for second and Kishwaukee’s Dave Paeglow was another stroke back in fourth.

Though he won two of the IPGA’s four majors of 2012 Orrick didn’t claim player-of-the-year honors. That went to St. Charles assistant Curtis Malm, who tied for sixth at Eagle Ridge. Not only did Malm win the section’s top player-of-the-year prize, he was also player-of-the-year among its assistant pros. Only two players have swept those awards in the same year – Dino Lucchesi (1997 and 1998) and Matt Slowinski (2009).

Malm did it with consistency. He won the first major, the IPGA Match Play title, in May, tied for sixth at the Illinois Open in July and was solo second at the IPGA Championship in August. Orrick skipped the Match Play and missed the cut at the Open.

“The Match Play is too early in the year. I don’t want to take that much time off,’’ said Orrick. “It cost me, and this year was also the first time I missed the cut in the Illinois Open.’’

Malm won the Illinois Open as an amateur in 2000 and worked his way through the lower level professional ranks until his breakthrough season. He still has an IPGA stroke play event at Schaumburg on Oct. 22, a makeup of an event rained out earlier, and the PGA Assistants national championship at Port St. Lucie, FL., the following week. He was fifth in the national assistants event last year and has obviously gotten better.

“ I’m a better player in terms of consistency than I was when I won the Illinois Open, but I thought I was a pretty good player back then,’’ said Malm. “This has been a great year. I’m glad it’s (almost) over.’’

One footnote to Chicago’s last major golf event of 2012: Katie Dick, assistant pro at Bryn Mawr and the only woman in the 94-player field, make a hole-in-in on the 13th hole. She used a 5-iron and is in line for a $4,500 bonus if no one gets an ace in the final stroke play event at Schaumburg on Oct. 22.

Western golf groups honor two legends

The Western Golf Assn. and the Women’s Western Golf Assn., now in partnership, are honoring two of the greats of the game.

The WWGA named Mickey Wright this year’s Woman of Distinction honoree at a luncheon on Thursday at Lake Shore Country Club in Glencoe. The award was first passed out in 1994 when another LPGA legend, Patty Berg, was honored. The award is given bi-annually and other past winners include Louise Suggs, Betty Jameson, Peggy Kirk Bell, Wiffi Smith, Nancy Lopez, Carol Mann and Kathy Whitworth.

Wright won the Women’s Western Open in 1962, 1963 and 1966. The tourney was discontinued after the 1967 tourney, but the WWGA is considering reviving the event – once one of the women’s annual major championships – in some form.

Now 77, Wright was unable to receive the award but sent her thanks for the honor.

“This has been quite a year for me,’’ she wrote. “I apologize for not being there in person to tell you how honored and appreciative I am to receive this award. First to have the USGA honor me with “The Mickey Wright Room’’ at the USGA Museum in Far Hills, N.J., and now the icing on the cake with your Woman of Distinction award.’’

Wright won 82 tournament titles, second all-time behind Whitworth’s 88. She also won the Vare Trophy five times (1960-64) and is the only player in LPGA history to hold all four major titles at the same time. She won the final two majors in 1961, the U.S. Women’s Open and LPGA Championship, and then took the first two majors of 1962 – the Titleholders Championship and the Western Open.

In 1994 she finished second in the Sprint Senior Challenge, which earned her $30,000 – the biggest paycheck of her career.

The WWGA also welcomed in a new set of officers, headed by president Kim Schriver of Glen View Club. Other officers are Pat Stahl Cincinnati, first vice president; Sandra Fullmer, Eagle Ridge, second vice president; Cynthia Hirsch, Lake Shore, third vice president; Diane Kalthoff, Knollwood, secretary; and Judy Anderson, Glen View, treasurer.

Meanwhile, the Western Golf Assn. is preparing for its Nov. 9 Green Coat Gala at Chicago’s Peninsula Hotel. The event, already sold out, raised $350,000 for the Evans Scholars last year when Curtis Strange was the honoree and guest speaker. This year the spotlight will be on Tom Watson, a three-time winner of the Western Open.

Malm is the player to watch in IPGA’s last major at Eagle Ridge

It’ll be nothing like the just-completed Ryder Cup, but there is one big competitive event left in the Chicago golf season.

The Illinois PGA will stage the last of its four major tournaments, the IPGA Players Championship, at Eagle Ridge in Galena on Monday and Tuesday. The section’s player-of-the-year and assistant player-of-the-year awards will be on the line with Curtis Malm, assistant pro at St. Charles Country Club, in position to clinch them both.

If Malm finishes at least tied for third he’d be the second section member to sweep both awards. Dino Lucchesi did it in the 1997 and 1998 and Matt Slowinski in 2009.

If Malm doesn’t finish that high in the 36-hole competition on the resort’s North course there’ll be one stroke play event — the Schaumburg Classic on Oct. 22 — left to determine player-of-the-year winners. That rescheduled event was rained out in August.

Malm won the IPGA Match Play title in May, tied for sixth at the Illinois Open in July and was second to Steve Orrick of Country Club of Decatur at the IPGA Championship in August.

Cantigny’s Rich Dukelow won last year’s Players Championship en route to winning player-of-the-year honors. He’ll try to become the first back-to-back winner of the Players since Orrick did it in 2008-09.

WGA is branching out

The Western Golf Assn., which has long conducted the BMW Championship, Western Amateur and Western Junior tournaments to bolster its Evans Scholars Foundation, will add a Web.com Tour event to its managerial duties in 2013. It’ll be part of the PGA Tour developmental circuit’s new four-event Tour Finals.

“Obviously it’s not the BMW, but it is a big deal and about the scope of the old Western Open,’’ said WGA executive director John Kaczkowski. “We don’t expect the same size crowds, but the (Web.com) tour has worked well in small to middle-sized markets.’’

The WGA-run event will be the Hotel Fitness Championship, and it’ll be held at Sycamore Hills in Ft. Wayne, Ind., from Aug. 26-Sept. 1. It’ll have 156 players and a $1 million purse and kick off the Finals to determine 50 players advancing to the PGA Tour in 2014.

Since Kaczkowski stepped up from tournament director the WGA has looked for additional tournaments. It also reached a merger agreement with the Women’s Western Golf Assn.

“We’ve been considering adding more professional events for several years,’’ said Kaczkowski. “We pursued others that didn’t make sense financially, but this one does. We’ll look at all options going forward.’’

State Amateur, Open will be back-to-back in 2013

When the U.S. Golf Assn. decided to move its 2013 U.S. Amateur championship at Brookline, Mass., up a week, to Aug. 12-18, that led to some changes on the local front as well.

The Chicago District Golf Assn. made the biggest adjustment, moving its 83rd Illinois State Amateur from its usual dates the second week in August to July 16-18 to reduce the scheduling demands that having the state and national tourneys back-to-back would have created. Next year’s Illinois State Amateur will be at Aldeen, in Rockford.

The IPGA only slightly adjusted its Illinois Open dates. That tourney dropped back a week, to July 22-24 at The Glen Club, in Glenview. The new scheduling will create a big two-week focus on golf for the state’s best players.

Onwentsia’s Carson is top professional

The IPGA has announced its annual award winners for 2012 with Bruce Carson, the veteran head professional at Onwentsia in Lake Forest, taking the top honor. He was named the section’s 58th Illinois Golf Professional of the Year. He’ll receive the award Nov. 15 at Medinah.

Also to be honored are: Scott Baines, Des Plaines, Assistant Professional of the Year; Pat Goss, Evanston Teacher of the Year; Michael Carbray, Glen Ellyn, Junior Golf Leader; Jim Sobb, Barrington, Bill Strausbaugh Award; Nick Papadakes, Wadsworth, Horton Smith Award; Jeff Siegmund, Plainfield, Player Development Award; Wade Gurysh Libertyville, PGA Merchandiser of the Year (Private Facilities); Robert Falkiner, Prospect Heights; PGA Merchandiser of the Year (Public Facilities); and Pat Kenny, Bill Heald Career Achievement Award.

RYDER CUP: Kaymer’s attitude adjustment paid off in the end

Germany’s Martin Kaymer changed his attitude. For that he was rewarded Sunday with the honor of assuring the Ryder Cup would remain in Europe for two more years.

Kaymer hadn’t been playing well leading into this year’s Ryder Cup. In fact he skipped the last qualifying tournament for Team Europe even though he held the last automatic berth and was in danger of losing it.

“This year I haven’t done much. I’ve been through a few things’’ said Kaymer. “But I’m playing good now.’’

Still, Kaymer was the only player on either team to compete just once in the two days of team matches at Medinah. European captain Jose Maria Olazabal sent him out only in the afternoon four-balls on Friday. Later that day Kaymer and Olazabal had a long talk about the significance of the Ryder Cup.

It wasn’t that Kaymer didn’t know about the competition, which began in 1927. He earned 2 ½ point for Europe in the 2010 matches in Wales but, Kaymer admits, “My attitude wasn’t the right one.’’

Even though Kaymer was on the winning side on Friday, partnered with Justin Rose, Olazabal sat him on Saturday and didn’t put him off in singles until the 11th of the 12 matches. It was Kaymer, though, who provided the point that kept the Ryder Cup in Europe.

“Jose Maria came up to me at the 16th hole and said `We need your point,’’’ said Kaymer. “That didn’t really help. I was so nervous.’’

Kaymer was all square with Steve Stricker when Olazabal arrived, and he was able to follow his captain’s orders in part because Stricker was struggling.

On the 17th Kaymer rolled in a four-foot par putt after Stricker made bogey to go 1-up. That was a big putt, but the six-foot par-saver he made on the 18th was even bigger.

Kaymer put his tee shot in a fairway bunker on the finishing hole, but his second found the green inside of Stricker’s ball. Stricker missed badly on his first putt. So did Kaymer. Stricker connected on his par putt, and then Kaymer made the par-saver that clinched the point and set off a long and wild victory celebration by his teammates.

German golfers haven’t had much impact on the Ryder Cup over the years, and the biggest one was negative. Bernhard Langer missed a similar six-foot putt on the last hole of the most emotional of the biennial competitions, the 1991 staging at Kiawah Island, S.C., that has become known as “the War on the Shore.’’ That miss gave the U.S. the Cup. Langer also helped convince Kaymer of the significance of the event this week.

Kaymer owns a major title, the 2010 PGA Championship at Wisconsin’s Whistling Straits course. That was an emotional event, too, as Kaymer won in a playoff with Bubba Watson after Dustin Johnson, who would have also been in the playoff, was penalized for grounding his club in a bunker on the last hole.

Winning a major brings a career upgrade, and – Kaymer now believes – so does the Ryder Cup.

“But it’s a completely different level,’’ said Kaymer. “The major win was just for myself, but I can see the guys behind me. My brother was here, my father was here. Sergio (Garcia) ran onto the green. There was so much more behind me. Now I know how it really feels to win the Ryder Cup.’’